A conventional thermal transfer recording medium comprises a support having thereon a transfer layer primarily consisting of a wax, a thermoplastic resin and a colorant.
The thermal transfer medium has come to be widely used because of its easier printing and better quality of printed images.
Recently, a variety of characters, FIGURES and marks such as bar codes are printed on articles and packaging materials with the thermal transfer recording medium.
Such printed articles and packaging materials are exposed to various work environments in the course of transportation, storage and packaging; they have many chances to contact various solvents, chemicals or oil in a factory, or to be occasionally placed near a heat source, and the printed matters are sometimes so badly affected that they are faded or blurred.
The thermal transfer recording medium used under such work environments are required to have much higher resistance to solvent and heat.
In a conventional thermal transfer recording medium, the transfer layer is primarily composed of a wax and a thermoplastic resin having a glass transition point (Tg) below 120.degree. C. in order to control peeling of a colorant layer from a support and lower break thereof when heat is applied. The recording medium containing a thermoplastic resin with a glass transition point of 120.degree. C. or higher has been considered to supposedly have difficulty in achieving the above matters.
On the other hand, a conventional thermal transfer medium has a problem of poor resistance to heat and chemicals.